A Leap into the Unknown
by Harosata
Summary: In some games, you cannot survive the jump.


_Here she was, racing down the rest of the course, having narrowly rescued her friend Ralph from the Mentos-Cola explosion that wiped out most of the Cy-Bugs and King Candy. After laughing the adrenaline out of their system, she looked at what remained of the course. She could see the hammer guy near the crater that was the finish line raising his magical fixing hammer._

_Understanding was what going on, Vanellope Von Schweetz quickly got back into her car, and she floored the pedal as she sped through the repaired and whole finish line. She expected the world to heal itself back to normal. She expected her glitching to be cured. What she didn't expect was for her hoodie to become a crown and her skirt to become a dress. It became somewhat evident as the other racers approached her, not with anger for her winning the race but from recognition and fear._

_No wonder King Candy had feared her. She was the princess of the game, the one who statistically should have a great chance beating the original race king in his or her own game._

_And after she had a little fun with her racers, she decided that being a glitch was not so bad, and thus renamed herself President so that she didn't have to wear the dress. In fact, the only time she had to wear it was to trick the boundary that kept glitches in or to attend functions like the hammer guy's wedding._

It was the happiest day of her life. And it all began with a leap into the unknown.

* * *

King Candy gazed down at the bandaged form of a girl who was currently lying down in a bed, a breathing mask strapped around her face. His own face was masked with tears, and it looked like his clothes were caught in a crash despite his lack of racing in the past couple of days.

_After the incident that claimed two games from the arcade, Turbo became a famous name, just not in the way its owner imagined. If characters didn't hate him outright, they feared he would follow them or pretended he was a new strain of virus. He managed to get a job as the station's janitor, but even if people forgot his face, he could have sworn the extra trash laying around was just for him._

_One day, a new racing day came. He would have hated the suger-filled kids decorating the floor with sugar and wrapper. That is, until he noticed someone else had picked up the broom and began sweeping. Her name was Francsilla, and she was the first character to be nice to him outside of his game._

_Everyday, she would visit him, and slowly, he opened up to her. He would speak of the good old days. She would tell him that she was a princess. He would open out to her about his darkest day. She would tell him how to drive better. That last part peeved him, but it was a fun type of teasing and it did help him adapt._

_Franscilla came to him one day, with tears down her face. She told Turbo that she was about to be married to someone who wasn't a racer, and her fiancee had already demanded a lot of things from her. Obviously, she would no longer come to the station if the future king had his own ways._

_Turbo tried to cheer her up, suggesting she should just break the program and marry someone else. He didn't know how, but he and Franscilla both got married and her fiancee was simply written out._

_They were the first couples to have a child who wasn't programmed in, and she turned out to be a headstrong child who often joked around despite her royal status. Soon, Queen Franscilla would retire and let the new princess join the roster._

_Then tragedy struck. During a practice run in a glacier stage, Turbo and Francsilla were racing against one another when they approached a turn. Turbo saw that Franscilla was moving too fast, and she had fell over the edge. Turbo had to climb down carefully since dying in a game that wasn't his would mean perma-game over. He saw that Francsilla was still out cold. That should have been the first sign that something was horribly wrong._

_Turbo called for the best doctors he could find, from Dr. Mario to those from games starring doctors. They all said the same things: she was contaminated. Her death was not part of the program, and as much as Turbo didn't want it to be true, he knew where the contamination came from. Turbo watched as she was buried in front of the castle, with all the racers and subjects shedding tears. Turbo felt guilty as he saw the new princess take on the crown. The princess was a product of their contamination as well._

_He'd thought it ironic and painful that he would once again take the wheel. King Candy was just a title given by the servants just to acknowledge his relationship with the former queen. Now, it was to replace the princess at the risk of his own life. He had forbidden the princess from touching anything with a wheel. The princess inherited the driving codes from both of her parents, and just watching the races was not enough for her._

_The princess snuck out wearing a hoodie. She purposely used her glitch for escaping. She unknowingly made her glitching worse. Every time the princess was close to sneaking into a race, she would always get caught. Turbo was this close to just chaining her and leaving her in the dungeons, but he had grown close to her and she was the only reminder of his love._

_Sadly, Turbo couldn't alway be the first to stop her. He had heard reports of a giant taffy monster chasing away the racers. He was called from his throne when it turned out the taffy monster was a game-jumping character and said character had reacted violently to a piece of news. By the time Turbo had calmed the giant down, he thought the day was over. That was, until Diet Cola Mountain erupted._

_The foolish girl had decided to sneak a kart out of the factory and decided to practice in the volcano of all places. It was one of the places racers were forbidden to go to since it was not yet deemed as raceable. The princess had not only practiced in the volcano, but she decided to try to jump on a ramp that flew between the hanging mentos and the lake of cola. She got too close to the mentos and she didn't land far enough from the cola._

King Candy brushed strands of candy sprinkles from his daughter's hair. "Vanellope, my sweet vanilla bean...Please wake up."

It was the worst day of his life. And it all began with a leap into the unknown.


End file.
